Martha Boston, who carried on the Hern/Hearns family tradition of a belief in the importance of education, was the youngest of eight children of Bernard Clinton Hearns and Clara Jones Hearns. Her father, “a very progressive man” in her eyes, worked on the railroad to save money to buy the family farm. Her mother, “seeking the best for her children,” sent her as a child to Baltimore to live with a sister, so she would have the opportunity for better schooling. She and her six sisters all became teachers. A graduate of West Virginia State University in Education and Home Economics, she pursued graduate studies at Temple University and taught school in Albemarle County and elsewhere.